[San Diego - Outside Torrance's house]

Faith watched as the girl came running down the streets and into her arms. She hugged her, held onto her tightly as if she had prayed for this all her life. Pulling back a little, Faith allowed herself to gazed deep into those blue eyes.

"Oh my God! Missy! I can't believe it! Are you okay? I was so worried about you!"

Faith couldn't help feeling that she knew this girl, and judging from the way the girl babbled on she knew they were intimate. Perhaps they were lovers once. There was just something vaguely familiar about the girl; the way she looked, and the way she managed to stir up all these tingling feelings inside her, it was like they had been in love for a lifetime. Faith felt secure around the girl, more secure than she had ever felt in a long time. She brought her hand up and slowly cupped Torrance's face, gently whipping the tears away with her thumbs.

"I'm five by five." Faith whispered, and ran her fingers through the silky strands of blond hair. And with that said, Faith leaned in and kissed the girl softly on the lips. It wasn't the raging hormones dying to be released; it just seemed like the most natural thing to do.

And Faith kissed her without even knowing who she is.

"You're what?" Torrance asked with a confused look on her face as soon as they parted from the kiss.

"I'm fine." Faith replied.

"Good, but don't ever do that to me again, you hear me?" Torrance tried to stay angry with the girl. She narrowed her eyes as she sat there staring at the girl. Faith laughed and gave her a smiled in return.

"What did I do, exactly?" Faith asked, as Torrance stood up and offered a hand to her.

"You ran away with that psychotic blond bitch." Torrance pulled Faith into a standing position. Then Torrance reached for the keys in her pocket. "Well, it's not exactly your fault, she kidnapped you. Which brings me to my next question, how did you manage to escape?"

The only blond that came into Faith's mind was of course, Buffy. But what did Buffy have to do with any of this? And why would Buffy kidnap her and release her without her knowing any of it. The last time she remembered seeing Buffy was when they battled the pathetic losers from the Watcher's Council. And if that was the case, what in the hell was this girl talking about? Faith's mind was spinning with millions of questions as Torrance led her inside the house.

Torrance caught the look on the girl's face and repeated her question.

"Um...I've just gotta use the bathroom real quick..." Faith mumbled in reply.

"Well, you know where it is..." Torrance replied and was interrupted by the sound of the phone ringing in the kitchen. "Uh, I'll get that."

Torrance hurried out and left Faith standing there alone. Faith had no clue where the bathroom was but she decided to head up the stairs anyway.

The house was truly luxurious. It had a simple yet elegant look to it, which was not like any house Faith had ever seen before. There were many pictures hanging on the walls and Faith glanced by each of them as she walked down the narrow hallway. Most of the pictures were of Torrance and her cheerleading squad.

Faith felt her body stop dead as she turned to look at one of the pictures. It was a picture of Cliff, Torrance, the Mayor and her at the State Regionals. Yes, the Mayor and herself. Now that really messed up her mind.

She scanned the photo carefully, still unable to process her thoughts. The picture showed the Mayor standing in the middle with his arms over Cliff and her and Torrance kneeling in the center wearing her cheerleading outfit as she held the trophy in front of her. `State Regionals Championship, 1999' was written the bottom of the frame.

"What the fuck is going on here..." Faith whispered.

***

[San Diego - Torrance's House, Downstairs]

"Hello?" Torrance said as soon as she picked up the phone.

"Good morning, this is Officer Philip Barkow calling from the L.A. Police Department, is...uh...Torrance Shipman...there please?"

"Speaking..."

"Oh, okay, um...we're having some problems with the missing persons file you reported last night, ma'am."

"What do you mean? What kind of problems?" Torrance asked even thought it really wouldn't make a difference now that that Missy was home.

"Well, um, apparently there isn't any record on Missy Pantone. Are you sure that she's missing?"

"What are you saying?" She didn't know what to make of that.

"What I'm trying to say here is that, there's no such person, ma'am."

"You're kidding right? How can this be? You guys probably messed up on the whole search thing." She raised an eyebrow and then laughed, trying to shake off the fear that was building inside her.

"No ma'am. We've search through all kind of record. Umm, there is a Cliff Pantone under the address that you've given us. And on here it lists...Mayor Wilkins of Sunnydale as his guardian..." The voice over the phone continued on.

Torrance listened quietly, her mind drifted back to the first time she saw her. It was just impossible for her to accept the fact that Missy could be lying to her. She couldn't think any reason why she would do something like this.

"...We'd like to ask Cliff Pantone a few questions regarding to his relationship with the mayor. So if you have any information about him, we'd appreciated it if you could give us a call."

"Um, okay, thanks...I'll see what I can do." and with that Torrance hung up the phone, puzzled by the whole situation.

***

[San Diego - Torrance's House, Upstairs In The Bathroom]

Faith left the tap running as she splashed the cold waters onto her face, attempting to clear her mind.

She slowly lifted her headed to see herself in the mirror. She smoothed a hand over her cheek, and traced the line of her chin as she gazed into the reflection of her dark cold eyes.

God, she hated herself. She hated herself for being so weak, and so pathetic that the only thing she was good at was screwing things up.

She bent down and plunged deep into the sink this time, immersing her face in the cold waters as if it would wash away her sins. Yes, her sins. The sins that crawled under her skins, the sins that hunted her in her dreams and made her pay dearly for killing a man. The sins that she wished she had never committed, the sins that the Mayor brought to her bloody hands.

Faith immediately sprung her headed up when she heard a noise behind her. Then, looking at the mirror she saw the reflection of a dark figure leaning against the wall.

Her eyes gradually lost focus, and her jaw dropped slightly as she turned and came face to face with...herself.

"Hey lover, did you miss me?"